The painting had sat on an easel in the front window of an Oceanwalk art store for 15 months with a sign touting its price.

Police said that about 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, Gonzales and Edmonds used a fire ax to smash the store`s window, then ran off with Cleopatra Receiving Mark Anthony`s Message, an original work that English artist Albert Joseph Moore painted a few years before his death in 1893.

Based on information from informants, police picked up Gonzales and Edmonds at their homes on Thursday morning, Dungan said. Marone, who was supposed to fence the stolen painting, was arrested Thursday evening.

Dealer Paul DeBernardis, who runs Art Liquidators Inc., said he appraised the painting himself at $1 million, but that the true value of an art work is hard to judge.

``You never know until the check is in your hand. I bought this as a crap shoot from an antique furniture dealer,`` he said. ``Of all the pieces I have here, I never thought that would be a piece to go.``

DeBernardis, whose crowded shop offers low-priced glassware and china as well as expensive prints, lithographs and paintings, faces Hollywood Beach on the north end of the partially empty Oceanwalk mall.

The Moore was not the highest-priced work in the shop. A Joan Miro titled La Boheme hangs on the wall with a $2 million tag.

``Mall security guards heard glass breaking and saw a man running with an ax but not the painting. They called police right away,`` DeBernardis said.

DeBernardis had no insurance or alarm system.

Investigators are still looking into how, and to who, Marone planned to sell the stolen art work, Dungan said.

He said the Moore, 4 feet by 5 feet with a heavy carved wood frame, would be awkward to carry and difficult to sell.